Separated at Birth: American and Canadian TV Audiences!

As Canada prepares to kick off its annual UpFront week in the heart of downtown Toronto today, Networks north of the 49th parallel (Namely, CTV, Shaw and CityTV) spent the better part of yesterday afternoon inundating our inbox with press releases touting their network’s dominance. Yet rather than bore you with the meaningless numbers — after-all, we believe one of the great thinkers of our time put it best when he* stated, “People can come up with statistics to prove anything.14% of people know that,” we thought readers on both side of the border might get a little bit more out of a comparison: Are American and Canadian viewing habits really as different as our taste in french fry toppings might suggest? The surprising, and somewhat depressing answer can be found in our side-by-side comparison charting the Top 20 shows (in total viewers) of this past broadcast season, after the jump.

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Hilarious how American dimwits are suckered into watching a bloated infomercial “Idol Results” show, thus consuming two full nights of TV. Canada appears to be much smarter in that regard. Someone should really tell the U.S. that the results are immediately known online, and two extra hours of viewing are not required, Coke and Ford notwithstanding.

http://profiles.google.com/antproof Keith Morgan

True, but it’s also equally sad that while American audiences watch a lot of American TV, except for the hockey shows Canadian audiences are also mostly watching American TV.

http://noreruns.net Kyle Nolan

Canadians have way better taste–or a ratings measurement system that works!

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Started in February of 2006 as an outlet for Daniel Malen (The TV Addict) to share his love of television with anyone who would listen, theTVaddict.com has quietly grown into one of the internet’s premiere destinations for television news, interviews and opinion. More about me.